Maryland Wants Pollution Insurance – Even with No Drilling

Even though the State of Maryland does not have enough money—and no prospects of finding it—to fund a $2 million mandated study of hydraulic fracturing (see this MDN story), and even though fracking won’t be allowed in Maryland until 2014 at the earliest, it doesn’t stop Maryland lawmakers from proposing onerous laws on the drilling industry “just in case” one day there is fracking in the state.

The latest shining example of how Maryland is the single most dysfunctional state when it comes to shale gas drilling: A proposed new law would take effect July 1, 2013 (even though fracking won’t be allowed until 2014) that will slap a requirement on drillers to have $5 million of “pollution insurance” per loss. The proposed law also requires drillers to post a $50,000 bond for each well they drill: